Qualified for the "Iron-butt" award on Friday.
I had a bit of a cross-country that needed to happen, my uncles 172 needed to be transported down to Jesse Saint's place for a new Dynon panel install. Friday was the day for good VFR all the way (or mostly good, as it turned out) so we saddled up and pushed. He took off about 6:45 am from our west Texas private strip and headed east, and I took off about 8 am and caught up with him at his second fuel stop in Hammond Louisiana. I had a great tailwind at 17,000 on the way there. Notice fuel quantity and range to empty in this shot. Gotta love it!
Another entry for the 200-knot club...
From there we stayed together at 120 knots TAS through the Eglin AFB east-west transition just off the coast, and on into Florida for another splash-and-dash for him at 40J.
At this point the weather was deteriorating and ceilings were down to 2000-1400, still VFR but not by much. We took off and headed south into X35 and the ceiling was down around 1200 but we didn't care at that point. We planned to spend the night and go back in my plane tomorrow - and that's where things went off the rails.
We got Jesse mostly lined out on the airplane for what we wanted and got it tucked back into his hangar, but by that point both our phones were blowing up with people back home - "Grandma is dying, it's time for the family to gather, ya'll need to come back ASAP." So what does ASAP mean? Spend the night here, and come back first thing in the morning? No - apparently it meant like NOW, this could be it very quickly.
So we cancelled the hotel room, fueled up my airplane, filed IFR for New Orleans and departed, figuring we would at least be closer and we could reassess on the phone from there. IMC departure and broke into the clear about 4700' or so, then a visual into KMSY about a half hour after dark. Fuel up, grab some shrimp and gumbo, phone calls said we better keep going, so filed IFR and departed for San Angelo. This is where we started paying for our sins of the tailwind earlier, and the shrimp in our bellies - we fought headwinds of 40 and 50 knots almost the entire way from New Orleans to San Angelo, good thing I took on plenty reserve fuel in New Orleans!
Finally arrived KSJT about 1:40 AM, after flying more than 2,000 miles. It was an 18 hour day for me with 14.9 of it airborne. Texas to Florida and back - I love this airplane!
I don't say it often, but I have had enough flying for a few days.
I had a bit of a cross-country that needed to happen, my uncles 172 needed to be transported down to Jesse Saint's place for a new Dynon panel install. Friday was the day for good VFR all the way (or mostly good, as it turned out) so we saddled up and pushed. He took off about 6:45 am from our west Texas private strip and headed east, and I took off about 8 am and caught up with him at his second fuel stop in Hammond Louisiana. I had a great tailwind at 17,000 on the way there. Notice fuel quantity and range to empty in this shot. Gotta love it!
Another entry for the 200-knot club...
From there we stayed together at 120 knots TAS through the Eglin AFB east-west transition just off the coast, and on into Florida for another splash-and-dash for him at 40J.
At this point the weather was deteriorating and ceilings were down to 2000-1400, still VFR but not by much. We took off and headed south into X35 and the ceiling was down around 1200 but we didn't care at that point. We planned to spend the night and go back in my plane tomorrow - and that's where things went off the rails.
We got Jesse mostly lined out on the airplane for what we wanted and got it tucked back into his hangar, but by that point both our phones were blowing up with people back home - "Grandma is dying, it's time for the family to gather, ya'll need to come back ASAP." So what does ASAP mean? Spend the night here, and come back first thing in the morning? No - apparently it meant like NOW, this could be it very quickly.
So we cancelled the hotel room, fueled up my airplane, filed IFR for New Orleans and departed, figuring we would at least be closer and we could reassess on the phone from there. IMC departure and broke into the clear about 4700' or so, then a visual into KMSY about a half hour after dark. Fuel up, grab some shrimp and gumbo, phone calls said we better keep going, so filed IFR and departed for San Angelo. This is where we started paying for our sins of the tailwind earlier, and the shrimp in our bellies - we fought headwinds of 40 and 50 knots almost the entire way from New Orleans to San Angelo, good thing I took on plenty reserve fuel in New Orleans!
Finally arrived KSJT about 1:40 AM, after flying more than 2,000 miles. It was an 18 hour day for me with 14.9 of it airborne. Texas to Florida and back - I love this airplane!
I don't say it often, but I have had enough flying for a few days.
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